The Year
by reader1739
Summary: Two main characters tell it, Bird Feather and Elizabeth. No travelers or flumes but there are, in a sense, territories. Bird Feather's family dies and he is left with his 17 year old sister. Elizabeth gets tired of her life and runs away.


Journal 1

Hi, my name is Bird Feather and I'm here to tell you about my 13th and 14th years. I will start from the middle of my thirteenth year. Just to let you know I didn't witness all of this stuff. Although I did witness most of it. The parts I didn't witness I got from others who did.

It was a bitter October morning in the fall of 1998. The only thing on my mind when I woke was the sinking dread of having to hear Robin's chatter for the next four hours. Robin is my 4 year old sister, she's blind and always enthusiastic. It doesn't matter if we are talking about water, she can usually find something interesting in the conversation and once she gets started, well, good luck in stopping her. While I'm on the topic of my family I might as well tell you about the rest of them. I have a brother who is 1 year old, his name's Tommy. My 10 year old sister's name is Alexandria, but everyone calls her Alex. Tall Grass is my 17 year old sister. I get along with her the best. I have a mother and father, a grandma and grandpa, two aunts, three uncles and absolutely no cousins. I know my family sounds like a small one but when we get together we make tons of noise, especially Robin and Tommy.

"Bird Feather, Robin wants to know what is taking you so long to get up and dressed this morning," Alex called up the stairs.

There was no point in arguing and ruining the morning. So all I did was call right back at her, "Tell 'princess' that I will be down right after I wash my face."

"O.K. will do."

I hurriedly got dressed and washed my face. Then I went bounding down the stairs to greet everyone. When I first walked into the room I was greeted by the aroma of cooking bacon and French toast. I hadn't realized I was so incredibly hungry till then. Robin was talking to Mother, Tall Grass was cooking, Tommy was wailing from his highchair, and Alexandria was getting silver ware out.

"Finally. It took you long enough," Robin said bossily.

"Good morning to you too," I replied trying to sound grouchy. I guess I succeeded because then Robin turned her head in my direction, acquired a puppy look, and said "I'm sorry Bird Feather. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course I'll forgive you Robin."

Alex had finished setting the table and asked me to get the plates out of the cupboard so Tall Grass could serve us. While I was waiting for all the plates to be filled Alex started making coffee and trying to calm Tommy down at the same time. Fa walked in, picked Tommy up, and brought him over to the rocking chair. We all knew the drill so we got silent and pretty much froze with our breaths held. Fa started singing real gently and rocking back and forth, back and forth. Tommy started quieting down and then fell asleep. Fa sang a little longer, put Tommy back in his crib, and the spell broke. We finished setting the table and serving everyone then sat down to enjoy one of Tall Grass' exquisite meals.

After breakfast we went to the study for our lessons. We're home schooled, for those of you who didn't get that. My parents are very strict about our 'schedule'. They make sure we do everything at exactly the same time everyday. It's really quite annoying. Around 12:30, Tall Grass brought us our lunches. As we ate them, Mother and Robin argued about getting Robin a Seeing Eye dog. Mother said she didn't want Robin to get one because then that meant one more thing running around the house and making tons of noise. Robin was promising that she would train it and either keep it in her room or keep it outside. Personally, I was on Mother's side, so was Tall Grass and Fa. Alex pretty much does or, in this case, agrees with whatever I do or say. Mother says I'm Alex's role model. I say it's annoying. Getting a Seeing Eye dog really didn't look all that good for Robin. We still remembered when Robin had brought home the stray cat. I still had the scars from it too. We learned our lesson then: don't let Robin talk us into getting _or_ keeping pets. Our family was never big on pets in the first place; both Mother and Fa had had bad childhood experiences. I mean, yeah, sure, we _like_ animals. We just don't like it when they're in our house.

When our lessons were done I ran straight outside to the side of the house where I had left my bow and arrows yesterday. I had set up my practice area in an old field about two years ago. Tall Grass, of course, helped me by making cardboard animals with bulls-eyes where their hearts would be. I was getting pretty good at aiming and nearly always hit them smack dab in the center. I had even killed a moving deer and a couple of rabbits. Robin wasn't all that happy when I told her what I had killed, neither was Mother for that matter. Tall Grass did make delicious meals the nights I killed them. When I pulled out of the memories, I found Alex standing next to me.

"Can you show me how to use a bow, please?" She asked

"Sure, Alex."

I handed her my bow and an arrow. "First you put your hand here. Then take the arrow and place it there. Now pull back the string and take aim. Fire!" She missed spectacularly but I said good job anyway. I was thinking I could buy her a bow for her birthday; it wasn't that far away, when Robin came out.

"Jeez, look who else came to bother me. To what pleasure do I owe you today" I joked.

She just smiled and walked off towards the garden. Once I made sure she was out of range I nocked an arrow and let it fly. I wasn't really concentrating so I was surprised when I heard it hit one of the cardboard animals. I shot a couple more arrows then went to retrieve the ones that hadn't broke. When I walked into the family room I saw Tall Grass sitting in her favorite chair, knitting.

"Hey." I said as I sank into the chair next to hers.

"Did you get tired of practicing?" She asked.

"Yeah, I think I need something a little more challenging. Those cardboard animals are a little beat up." I responded.

She laughed softly and smiled. "I'll see if I can't find something else for you to practice on."

"Thanks, Tall Grass. You're the best."

I watched her in silence for a while but then I got bored so I wandered up to my room.

A week later it was Alex's birthday. I had bought her a bow and some arrows, my parents had bought her clothes, so obvious, and Tall Grass and Robin had bought her a harmonica. After she opened her gifts Tall Grass and I brought out the cake.

"Oh, it looks so nice. Thanks, Tall Grass!" She exclaimed.

I cleared my throat to let her know that I had helped.

"Oops, sorry Bird Feather, I forgot that you had helped Tall Grass with the cake. Thank you."

"You're welcome." I responded.

After we ate cake I took Alex out to practice with her bow. Tall Grass, who was sitting against the side of the house, had come out with a book so she could watch us. After a little while Alex was starting to improve.

"You're getting better," I told her.

"Thanks."

"Bird Feather, Bird Feather," I heard Robin yelling. "There's been a terrorist plane spotted not too far from here!"

At once I heard the sound of a plane flying low. Then seconds later I heard Alex scream. "What is that?" Pointing up at some dark object hurtling towards the ground only about what looked like two or three houses away from us. It was as if we were watching the thing fall in slow motion. That is until it hit the house, then everything returned to normal speed.

"Get down, with your hands over your head!" I yelled, while dropping to the ground myself. I felt the ground shake as the bomb actually hit the earth. Moments later I saw a wave of debris hurtling towards us. Right after I had put my arms over my head I was in the middle of all of that debris feeling junk hit me and hoping everyone else was O.K.

After everything settled down, which felt like hours later, I shakily got up and brushed myself off. I could see Tall Grass stirring about three yard away. I looked around for Alex and saw her lying motionless in the sea of debris. As I walked over to her I could hear fire truck sirens coming closer to us. As I bent down to see if Alex was alive I noticed that our house was completely demolished. I felt for a pulse in Alex's wrist and found one, faint but there.

"Tall Grass," I called. "Come here, I think Alex is alive."

"Are you sure?" Tall Grass demanded.

"Not really," I admitted.

"Let me see."

As Tall Grass checked Alex I walked into what used to be our house. Immediately I saw Mother and Fa with little Tommy sitting in Mother's lap, dead. I had to look around a bit till I found Robin. I realized that the only reason I hadn't broken down in tears was because of shock. I went to check to see if Robin was still living but my hopes weren't high. Just then the firemen, police officers, and medical personal arrived. I heard Tall Grass talking to a police officer and telling him what had happened. As I was walking over to stand by her someone from one of the ambulances intercepted me and asked if anyone else was alive, other than me and Tall Grass.

"Yes, my sister is alive. Over here," I told him and led him to Alex.

"Okay, thanks. We'll check her out to see what sort of medical attention she requires," he said.

"There's a chance that the older one can still survive," the doctor told us. "That's only if one of you is willing to donate blood for her."

We were at the hospital. Waiting for news of our family.

"I will," Tall Grass answered.

When they took her to have the blood drawn I felt lost, and alone. I knew I was in shock. When I saw the doctor and Tall Grass walking back to me I immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Son, your sister didn't have the right blood. We're going to have to take it from you," the doctor told me.

"What do you mean 'she didn't have the right blood'? Tall Grass is Alex's _sister_! She _has_ to have the right blood!" I cried.

"Tall Grass's blood type wasn't the same as Alexandria's. So we need a different donor. Will you do it?" He calmly explained.

"Sure."

"Okay then, follow me."

As I followed the doctor I thought about what he had said. Not the same blood type? That wasn't possible. They were a family; they were _supposed_ to have the same blood type.

"In here please," said the doctor, tearing me from my thoughts.

I followed him obediently and sat down in the chair. As the doctor got the needle ready I rolled up my sleeve so he could get the needle into a vein. I've never minded needles much and knew that when he told me it wasn't going to hurt he wasn't really lying but nor was he truly telling the truth. After they took the blood from me I sat there waiting for them to tell me that Alex would be alright. When the doctor came in again he had my blood donation in his hand.

"Why didn't you give the blood to her?" I asked looking at the blood donation.

"It wasn't the right blood type," he told me. "It seems that you and Tall Grass have the same blood type but it's not the same as Alexandria's. We might have to let her go."

"What? No, you can't just let her die. She's our sister!"

"Well, we might be able to take blood from one of your other family members."

"So do that! And do you think that you can run some test to see if our blood type matches anyone's?"

"Yes, I think that can be arranged."

"Thank you, doctor"

"I'm sorry. We just weren't able to get the blood in time," said the doctor.

Tall Grass was sitting next to me silently crying. The doctor had just told us that Alex was dead, along with the rest of our family. I didn't blame her.

"Did you find out if there was anyone who matched our blood type?" I asked.

"Yes. There was an older man that came here about half a year ago. He was an Indian. You have the same blood type as him."

"An Indian?"

"Yes."

"Where does he live?"

"Up north. Past Churchill and Dubwant Lake. A little outside of Baker Lake."

"Thank you."


End file.
